House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that the stopgap funding impasse in Congress wouldn’t spur a government shutdown.

“Listen, there’s no threat of a government shutdown,” he told reporters. “Let’s just get this out there.”

Boehner defended putting up the continuing resolution, which would keep the government running until Nov. 18, for a vote on Wednesday, even if leaders weren’t sure they had the 218 votes needed for passage. The Ohio Republican deflected blame to House Democrats for the bill’s failure, accusing them of playing politics when Republican leaders believed Democrats would support the CR.

The House rejected the continuing resolution, 195-230, with dozens of conservative Republicans uniting with most Democrats to vote no. Members had different qualms about the bill: Democrats hated that the measure slashed $1.5 billion from an auto-incentive program in order to help pay for disaster relief, while conservative Republicans insisted that the overall level of spending was too high.

“I’ve always believed in allowing the House to work its will,” Boehner said. “I understood what the risk was yesterday, but why not put the bill on the floor and let the members speak? And they did.”

The failure of the CR vote sends House Republican leaders back to the drawing board to devise a continuing resolution that could pass the full House. Boehner said they were meeting with rank-and-file Republicans later Thursday to present options. But he declined to say whether the new CR would cut more spending – appeasing the conservative wing of the party – or drop the offsets and pull Democrats to the “yes” column.

Democrats have made it clear which option they prefer.

“What we are advocating for is a clean CR,” said Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “Just take out the offset, and we think that could pass.”

A new CR could come on the House floor as early as Thursday, although leaders have already warned that the House could be in session through the weekend.